Glitter (album)
Glitter is a soundtrack album by American singer Mariah Carey, recorded for the film Glitter and released in the United States on September 11, 2001 by Virgin Records. It was a commercial failure compared to Carey's previous albums, and professional reviews either praised her for the new territories she explored (Rolling Stone declared it "a big step forward in terms of maturity for one of pop music's eternal kids" and gave it a three-star review) or criticized it as a disconcerting departure. It was released shortly before the film Glitter, in which Carey starred, which was also a critical and commercial failure. Carey has cited the September 11, 2001 attacks as one of the reasons the album failed. In an interview, she said: "I released it around 9/11. I became a punching bag. I was so successful that they tore me down because my album was at No. 2 instead of No. 1. The media was laughing at me and attacked me." The album debuted at number seven on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, remained in the top twenty for two weeks and on the chart for just twelve. It has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and sold about four million copies worldwide, less than a million of which were in the U.S. The lead single "Loverboy" peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and went on to become the best-selling single of 2001 in the U.S. (partly due to a price cut), but the album's follow-up singles were far less successful. However, Glitter was a number-one selling album in countries such as Japan, where it became the first international soundtrack to reach the number one position. The song "If We" was later re-worked by Damizza and released as a single titled, "What Would You Do" with Butch Cassidy, Nate Dogg and Carey in 2004. Conflict between Damizza and Shade Sheist led Damizza to recruit Cassidy to replace Sheist on the single version. Sheist retaliated with his own remix titled "G-Mix", which is a re-worked version featuring Nune and Carey. "What Would You Do" was popular on the west coast of the U.S. (where Carey had performed it while on tour in Los Angeles), but it was a failure elsewhere in the country. The song received minimal airplay in Europe. Album Background Following the release of the "Butterfly" album, Mariah began working on a film and soundtrack project entitled "All That Glitters," but during that period of time, Columbia Records pressured Mariah to release a compliation album in time for the holiday season in November which caused Mariah to put the project on hold and her "Number 1 compliation album was released in November of 1998. After the commercial success of "Rainbow," Mariah aimed to complete the film and soundtrack project for the summer of 2001. After signing a $100 million 5-album record deal with Virgin Records, Mariah was given full conceptual and creative control of the project. She opted to record an album partially mixed with 1980s-influenced disco music and other similar genres in order to go hand-in-hand with the setting of the film. As the film's release date grew near, the title was changed to "Glitter." During 2001, Mariah had ended her three year relationship with Latin music singer, Luis Miguel and was also filming another movie, "WiseGirls" at the time.Due to pressure from the media, her heavy work schedule, and splitting from Luis Miguel, Mariah began posting disturbing messages on her official website and displayed erratic behavior during several live promotional outings most notably for her surprise appearance on MTV's "TRL" on July 19, 2001 where she performed a striptease and handed out ice cream to fans and guests. Days after her appearance on "TRL," Mariah continued to display erratic behavior which led to be hospitalized citing "extreme exhaustion" and having a "physical and emotional breakdown." After being hospitalized and under doctor's care for 2 weeks, Mariah took an extended break from the public eye. Due to the heavy media coverage about Mariah's publicized breakdown and hospitalization, Virgin Records and 20th Century Fox delayed the release of "Glitter" and the soundtrack on August 9, 2001. It was stated that both projects be postponed for 3 weeks. The album was released on September 11, 2001 and the film was released on September 21, 2001. Both the movie and soundtrack suffered commercial failure due to the long delay. After the failure of the film and soundtrack, Mariah's contract with Virgin Records was bought out for $50 million. The decision was brought out due to the low sales of the project as well as the negative backlash of Mariah's publicized breakdown. Less than 24 hours after the settlement was made, Virgin Records released a statement that they had terminated the contract with Mariah, claiming to have paid her $28 million to part ways. Mariah's lawyers threatened to sue, but Virgin Records threatened to counter-sue for defamation. The matter was eventually settled out of court with both parties opting not take the matter to court. After that, Mariah flew to Capri, Italy for 5 months and began writing material for her new album, "Charmbracelet." Also, she founded her own record label, MonArc Entertainment and signed a new three-album record deal with Island Records which was valued at over $23 million. Track listing #"Loverboy" (remix) (feat. Ludacris, Shawnna, Twenty II, and Da Brat) — 4:30 (Mariah Carey, Larry Blackmon, Thomas Jenkins) #"Lead the Way" — 3:53 (Mariah Carey, Walter Afanasieff) #"If We" (Ja Rule featuring Mariah Carey and Nate Dogg) — 4:20 (Jeffrey Atkins, Mariah Carey, Nathaniel Hale, Howard Hersh, and Damion Young) #"Didn't Mean to Turn You On" — 4:54 (James Harris III, Terry Lewis) #"Don't Stop (Funkin' 4 Jamaica)" (feat. Mystikal) — 3:37 (Mariah Carey, DJ Clue, Duro, Mystikal, Tom Browne, Carrollyne Smith) #"All My Life" — 5:09 (Rick James) #"Reflections (Care Enough)" — 3:20 (Mariah Carey and Philippe Pierre) #"Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" (feat. Busta Rhymes, Fabolous, and DJ Clue) — 6:43 (Michael Cleveland) #"Want You" (feat. Eric Benet) — 4:43 (Mariah Carey, James Harris III, Terry Lewis, and James Wright) #"Never Too Far" — 4:21 (Mariah Carey, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis) #"Twister" — 2:26 (Mariah Carey, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis) #"Loverboy" — 3:49 (Mariah Carey, Larry Blackmon, Thomas Jenkins) Category:Albums